If there is one game for which my sheer desire to be involved with it is matched only by my intense aversion to actually playing it, it would have to be EVE Online.
For nearly two decades I have read articles like this one, and been drawn to and fascinated by the experience EVE seems to capable of creating. At the same time, nearly a dozen separate attempts to get into the game over that same time period have proven me incapable of breaking through the dense barrier of “ugh” in order to get to that fabled, juicy pleasure that seems to exist at the center of the coconut.
I know in my bones that EVE is not a game I enjoy playing, and yet every time I read about it, I wish it were.
As someone who played EVE for over 15 years, it’s easier than ever before to enter this world; yet I would advise against it. Since Pearl Abyss bought CCP Games, in my opinion almost everything has gone downhill. Some good surely has come out of it (including the game being much friendlier to new players) but there is absolutely a huge ‘pay-to-win’ factor nowadays. It doesn’t fully work like that in the EVE mechanic, but basically anything that exists in the game can be bought with real money easier than ever. Either way, you do you – I left the… Read more »
Former Maurader/dread/carrier/wormhole rat captain here. I stopped playing shortly before it wen’t free to play. It was quite a struggle, but I made a living in it, able to play the game with the ffort of running it online. So sinking my time for in game money. But it eventually got too much. 2 AM group alerts that some high sec band of kiddies invading our hole, worry about high sec gankers every time ya leave the wormhole or do anything, was just getting too much at the end. I loved my maurader, my kronos. But now with all the… Read more »
The second a game’s design includes notifying you at 2 am that someone’s blowing your shit up is the same second that game isn’t for me.
To be fair.. I was what was called a wormhole rat. Corp of us players, quite literally living OFF the grid.. no warning, no local chat, nothing. Just us, and the void. Random chance for a wormhole to open into us. Profitable space. We were lucky to be in a small armor buffed space, instead of shield buff space. But people would come in, and camp, afk, sitting invisible, or come in with a force to try and mess with our base. Was fun but was harrowing after lazerhawks found our home and we had to burn them out. Never… Read more »
Yup I left in 2011 after playing since BETA. I too decided it was too much of a time sink and have gradually quit all MMORPGs that require me to be online to enjoy or online to stay in a group. Eve isn’t what it was in the 2000s. Once the free accounts came in, I gave up for good. It was too much work getting things to Jita hub in freighters that get ganked hourly without any tools to avoid. I also made enough isk through 2011 not to care anymore. The end game is basically getting a titan… Read more »
Yeah, a few of my friends tried getting me into Black Desert. Tried it for 1 day, hated it. I’m all about that gathering and crafting, and that all pauses when you log off.
I’m in a similar boat. Played Runescape, Warcraft and Vindictus for years. Can’t touch an MMO ever again. The IDEA of an MMO is sweet nectar to me – building up a character, exploring a vast world, encountering unexpected opposition, using clever tricks or strange items to get an edge, it’s all wonderful. But when I play, I see the treadmill now, the grind, the rut, the gear checks and work I’ll have to put in to optimize, and I’m immediately turned off. I don’t want to hate MMOs, but the fire I had for them is gone, and I’d… Read more »
Yup. Not enough ISK? Throw down some real money for plex and sell them in the game market. Not enough skill points? Buy them off the market. Want that big shiney capital ship? You can buy that, too (in some areas)
Coming from someone who actively played EVE online for years: yes, it was an amazing experience. also, yes it had (not sure now) one of the worst new player experience ever designed and your enjoyment depended a lot on how much time you had to put in and the sort of corporation you joined.
To be perfectly honest I could not imagine investing that amount of time or dedication today…
BUT, I still talk to the people in my old corp daily and actually went to the US to meet them!
Very true! I got into it back in my early college days; I don’t think I’d have the time, patience, or wherewithal to learn it, now.
they updated the new player experience ALOT since the old days. now it basically charts you down the path you want relatively well. the only downside is if you use a free account you get alot of your skills locked early on and cant use the stronger gear or ships. i know its to entice to get paid accounts but id rather the skills be unavailable not teasingly allowed but not fully.
Sounds like Gundam Battle Operation 2, great game and a lot of fun, as long as you are not a new player and have to worry about vets with over tuned gear in low point matches.
I fiddled around with and dabbled in EvE due to loving science fiction and spaceships, but not being a fan of PvP, especially when you can literally be attacked by anyone at any time, it proved to be too stressful and just not fun for me.
I understand why people who loved it loved it though lol
Several years back, I took a hiatus from EVE. I haven’t gone back since. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the game; I certainly did. But it took so much of my time that I wasn’t doing *other things*. Now, I’ve been gone so long that I worry getting back in will be tough. The alliance I was in has been forced to move, I have so many assets I don’t really feel like relocating… and of course there’s the knowledge that I’ll be pouring so much of my free time into it again. And I’ll feel ‘torn away’ from… Read more »
I love Eve I would double box and run a miner/ scrapper and a fighter on the other box. But if I turned the game on it was Litterally the rest of the day. End up moving and my internet wasnt good enough to play so I stopped.
Its one of the few I want to play and would hate to play again.
Yep, I used to dual box. Found single-account too limiting (having to rely on other people all the time, eww) so I minted my second only 4 months after my first.
That’ll be the fire spiders, I bet. Burrowed right into the servers. Comic never stood a chance.
“the only good bug is a dead bug!”
Its not a bug; its an undocumented feature.
Same.
As somebody who played from beta on into the mid 2010s, yeah… EVE-Online is better to read about than to play, in the long run. It was fun doing stuff with friends…but everything felt too much like *work* to be truly enjoyed, and you don’t even get the enjoyment of actually flying your ship.
In the end, I was just biding my time, waiting for the second coming of Elite. (One of the original inspirations for EVE.)
I used to kinda enjoy eve , but yeah..
have you tried star citizen? its still in alpha , but very playable
And by ‘alpha’, you mean “glorified tech demo which will never be released in a finished form, despite having funding on par with an actual space mission” ?
Yeah, no. There’s better options out there.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be suggesting Star Citizen as a serious game to play right now with all the bugs it has and no end in sight of it ever leaving alpha. I’d suggest something like Elite Dangerous instead.
i dabbled in Eve. it was an interesting change of pace from the game i usually play. that said, its definitely not for me. granted i am a generally solo player, and the thought of interacting with other people generally makes me uncomfortable at best, i do enjoy grouping up with people for raids and such. in Eve however, it just didnt seem to come naturally. i didnt start chatting away and someone take notice and invite me to their group where shenanigans ensued. could just be the ole addage of CCP doing their thing while the outliers continue to… Read more »
The blank comic is a representation of Tim’s experience with EVE. We hoped for a pleasant surprise but left disappointed. It’s a meta-comic. Grats to Tim for exploring experimental comic design.
That’s the general feeling I’ve had about every MMO for a while. I dabbled in Everquest in high school/college but stopped when I reached the level where it was nearly impossible to level solo as I didn’t have any friends who played it and the well known high ratio of time spent finding a group to monsters actually killed. Now that I’m an adult with a full time job, a relationship and a house to take care of the idea of getting into most games is pretty laughable. I bought the Witcher III and while it’s a *good* game I… Read more »
To this day, MMO developers still haven’t realized that EVE online only pulls off what it can do because LOSS IS REAL. Anything you buy, anything you acquire, can be taken away from you, if not by the NPCs you suddenly find are too tough to battle (and which prevent you from warping off to safety until they kill you), then by the players who inevitably find you, even in ‘safe’ pockets of space. The economy and stories are only possible because it is, entirely, player-driven. If you buy something from the market, it means someone else had to make/hard-farm… Read more »
I think it’s less of a “developers don’t understand…” so much as “there isn’t enough of an audience to sustain many of these kinds of games.” There are always these little niches of people who want very realistic and sophisticated content (look into the people running air traffic control for flight simulators online), but most of us just want to have some fun either with friends or on our own. For most of us all it’d take is our first serious loss of 10+ hours of accumulated wealth to make us quit outright. (After all, how many of us have… Read more »
Eve is the space version of the hard-scrabble FP survival game (in some major ways). Those sorts of games require people willing to and who actually enjoy the risk, the tension, the frustration and loss. When most people sit down to have an antidote to the miseries of day to day life (we all face them), they often want to have simple fun and maybe see a story unfold and maybe get some sense of progress. They also don’t want the level of hard core effort that some games produce. And the number of folks who are willing to dive… Read more »
Yep, it’s the same reason why I avoid the “Dark Souls” type games. I don’t want something that’s frustratingly hard. The only game I’ve played in probably 10+ years and continued despite a high level of difficulty is Cuphead and that’s doable because it’s playable in five minute chunks and there’s no real penalty for loss.
EVE is years of spreadsheet warring, of sitting in space and getting ganked by gonks that think they are funny. By a system that is built around giving the griefers toys to torture anyone that thinks “This looks amazing I want to explore space”. Of being in fleets of ships running on servers that lag out as they cross 50 jumps just to find the fight is elsewhere..
I’ve played eve, was in a medium sized org and then realized… I hated the damn game, so much there to like but the downside isn’t for me.
Completely unrelated to Eve, I love how Lucas is reading the new Star Wars The High Republic book!
Not only was I in that battle and the one that followed (in which we broke the world record battle AGAIN), but I also get to peek behind the curtain of the political side of EVE, and let me tell you this is more than fascinating. But I get the feeling, it took me a long time to get into EVE. The thing is that you should never plan to join and play alone. Find a corporation that is newbie-friendly (literally all big alliances have some), join them, let them wash you with gifts and advice and hop on fleet.… Read more »
And, of course, there’s always EVE University.
But, first and foremost, EVE is *not* a game for the impatient. The learning curve really is a cliff, even with today’s NPE, because there is just *so much* to confront from your first login that it can quickly become overwhelming.
It’s not just the patience, it is literally the time. I have elders to care for, a wife temporarily disabled (we hope temporarily…) and a kid in virtual academy trying to pick up her grades and deal with not seeing anyone her age in person. I have about 90 steam games and about half I’ve never even fired up. Liked the looks, bought them on sales, but life just does not permit the investment. I have played ridiculous amounts of casual shooters and board games and suchlike as they are short and sweet. Things that require a constant commitment, particular… Read more »
As with any game that’s deep enough, it’s something you have to do long term to really enjoy it. People don’t fight these battles because they’re super enjoyable to play, they fight them for the sake of their space clan, of their friends. I’ve played since 2013, been in a lot of meetups (my only time in the US was for EVE Vegas), even organized a few, and when I fight a 12 hours long battles, I know that down the road I’ll be talking about this with friends and foes several years after it happened. That’s also why both… Read more »
I will look at the books – I didn’t even know they existed. I have plenty of enjoyment and camaraderie I’ve been able to share, even years later, in games that don’t take so long to trudge through. And what is the % of Eve players who get beyond 75 hours of play? I’m guessing no so high and I’d be guessing fewer than many other sorts of game (in terms of folks who hang 75+ hours vs. people who bought it and played at least 10 hours). I think you can have miserable experiences and still find the stories… Read more »
What book is Lucas reading ?
Looks to me like one of the new High Republic novels, specifically Star Wars: Light of the Jedi
Oh good. You fixed the comic not showing up. Thanks.
Yeah, no – for me, these articles are what convinces me that Eve is *not* something that I want to get into. Where battles mean actual content lost, and sometimes can equal hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff – no, nuh-uh, not happening. And then, to learn that it’s a twelve-hour battle…? Nope, not gonna happen, no way.
Yeah, that pretty much makes the game have more hours invested in it than most full time jobs.
How does Lucas already have the new SW book?! That’s the REAL question! 😉
couldn’t agree more, EVE is a game I love to read about but for games I play, think I’ll stick with my other offerings. Does make for some fine literature all the same.
Spreadsheets, IN SPACE!!!
I have loved Eve when I play it, and if it had come out when I was a teenager I suspect I would have drunk it down like there was no tomorrow, but sadly I just don’t have the time that this needs one to commit to it. It is also, definitely, a game of marmite (a British spreadable food), you either love it or hate it.
Not a pro editor, but shouldn’t the second paragraph read “seems to be capable” or “seems capable”?
I played eve and worked the planet system (gathering resources from planets). the leaders are too tight ass. having taxes so huge you cant even work on the planet. beside that they constantly forces you into battle and a lot of them ask for you to spend the cash yourself.
best gig i had was taking a scanning ship and scanning for lost drones. sold those for a good price.
if you are super lucky you would find one of those mega expensive drones that some dude has to warp away from before loosing there ship.
Sounds like the real world where Empires collide. Also shows how a small guy can scrape out a living… sometimes. The real world hands out enough of that (not in the sci-fi context… more the modern day world of capitalism and corporatism). I think what got me from years back was the guy that was high up in an alliance and he basically emptied their collective banks and buggered off and bought himself all sorts of amazing stuff… because he could. That cost people real world money and a lot of upset. I don’t play games to be uspet (beyond… Read more »
Agree so much. I’ve watched my husband go from hours a day in beta to just checking in on it every couple months. Yeah, it sounds great. If you have the time and patience. And most people with a family and a job just don’t anymore.
I love that Lucas is reading Light of the Jedi! Nice touch! Can’t wait to get my hands on the book!
Played EVE for years in Goonfleet, which was both really helpful for a new player and genuinely made me a worse human being through osmosis of online goon culture. EVE can be great fun, but it’s a long haul game.
I wish more games had real-loss though.
I have it much the same way about cRPGs … i utterly love the idea about them (and played D&D 3.5 for almost a decade before the group i was in grinded to a halt) but i never seem to find one that grabs me, best guess being because you can’t make a character where you can experience all options at the same time (and it still making sense) but at the same time dislike the idea that a game is only ‘good’ for one play-through.
I’m not fond of MMOs and 60 person raids… that seems more like army combat than a quest. I’ve discovered on Steam the Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. The original versions of NWN (not NWN2…) gave me the ‘party with a small group of friends and play through stories that feel very personal because there aren’t 100 people don’t the same thing’. NWN:EE has added proper networking, there are persistent worlds (but smaller ones) and there are quests for you and a few friends, and there are worlds build by enthusiasts, vs. big studios. It’s not going to give you the… Read more »
Amen… I kinda wish EVE online had a illegitimate child with Elite Dangerous…
Amen… I kinda wished EVE had illegitimate child with Elite Dangerous…
My wife tells me that when you’re pregnant it completely sucks, but as soon as its over you start forgetting how bad it is and you want to do it again.
That’s exactly how these big fleet fights are like. Every time I get in one, I can’t believe I’m sitting here willing to do it again, and then when it’s over a few days later I’m looking forward to the next one.
You’re actually ahead of the curve. You barely touched it and you’re already a bittervet.
I’m a solo, all games should have some kind of playability for such players. My goal was just to have fun in space, but right off I was rather disappointed when I couldn’t see out of my ship. You put tons of isk into these things and no one can be bothered to add a function to your drone camera to look behind it or add a camera to the back of it? I got to a point where it just seemed like work, further fun meant having to truly interact with people and the immersion wasn’t to the point… Read more »
for me the reason I don’t keep playing EVE is the massive barrier of ‘You need Premium to learn/use that’
-a barrier that encloses 80-90% of ships and gear and non-basic skills.
I love that Lucas is reading the new Star Wars High Republic book. Nice Easter egg!
That’s exactly the way I feel toward Homeworld.
Take it back!
7 attempts so far to get into EVE and counting. 43 minutes and 22 seconds so far is my record before I uninstall. Again.
awoooooo ima whale
I tried yo play it once. The point and click ship controls turned me of it immediately
Too big for me. It’s almost a job. I dont even have enough time to play wow, so eve….
It is an engine of spreadsheets and social engineering that occasionally produces stories about that one day it got interesting enough to talk about… after the dust settled and 12 hours of 1 fight in super-slow-motion could be summarized in an article that makes it sound like there’s something interesting under the hood. But… the interesting part was 12 hours of super-slow-mo battle. It’s like working a 9-5 selling insurance, and in an all-day meeting… anything happened. Anything at all. Anything sounds like the most amazing event in comparison to being stuck in that meeting you invested years of 9-5… Read more »
There should probably be an Eve “light” version that makes it simpler for new players to get to the fun parts and then be ready for the real experience or to just stick to the friendlier version/server.^^
This is a game that I truly loved, while I was playing it. Till I realized that it took to much time. Used to help run corp and alliance supply logistics (free fleet battleships don’t just appaer in null sec….). That said I’m now a Fleet and Logistics Manager IRL, so maybe some good ce from it.
Reminds me of playing ARMA II and I enjoyed using chinooks, blackhawks, and little birds to ferry people and supplies (including tanks… if you knew the bug that let you pickup an M1) to the battlezones. The fighting was fun but the transit let you be helpful and fly over fun terrain to land in tough landing zones. The guys who ran air strikes needed a spotter, but their again a couple of guys would do that and that was their thing. It’s a good feature to have some game roles that one can drop into for a while to… Read more »
Same here, I just stick to watching the YouTube videos of all the cool stuff that happens, and call it good.
I’m a bit dissapointed this wasn’t titled “New Year’s EVE”
Man, I love EVE. I think about her frequently, but… we just can’t be together anymore. We had lots of good times, but we’ve grown apart.
Seriously, though, EVE is – in my opinion as someone with a… I think 15 year old account? – a fantastic game. Deep as the galaxy is wide. But for me, flying those big capships wasn’t my drive. No, I wanted to be one of those guys who MADE them. I wanted to see them go out and blow up/get blown up and say, “I made that explosion possible.”
Eve Online isn’t what it was to be. A game where losses meant something, where you had to spend effort to get something… where you had so much gameplay types for your choice… But since one year, things turned to the worst. CCP did everything that everyone would think as stupid moves. – The Blackout which was an absolutly traumatic experience (it could have been an interesting move if done correctly, but CCP is too dumb to do anything right) – The destruction of Market Trading (by making any buy order require the full money in advance, and by increasing… Read more »